Stand up and be Counted
by I'mcalledZorro
Summary: When Jack Dalton is going door to door for the Census he makes a new connection. A MacGyver AU


_A/N:OK so I know I promised my CSI/Mac crossover next, but there's been a little change up in the beta department, so we're slowly building up to that story, more on what's next at the bottom of the story. I would like to thank HelloNurse for the quick beta! I'm looking forward to many more! And as always I don't own MacGyver!_

Jack Dalton heaved a sigh as he hauled himself, the census bureau bag, and the stupid government-issued laptop out of his sister's air conditioned truck into the humidity of the day. He hadn't wanted to hurt his precious Shelby going down some of the dirt roads that Texas had, so they had switched for a bit. He wiped the sweat that poured down his face off then aired out his shirt crinkling his nose at the smell. He stood and listened to the cicada's song rising from the trees. The sweat quickly replaced itself, which he wiped off again with a sigh. '_Only three more houses to go_,' he thought, '_Then it's quitin time! I can sit in the air-conditioned house and have an ice-cold beer_.'

With that goal in mind, he gamely climbed a couple of well-constructed wooden steps to reach the wide front porch, and then crossed to the front door of the sprawling ranch house. He gave the door a few good raps then took in the scenery as he waited for someone to answer the door. There was a pond to the side of the house, a flower garden on the other side, with some of the best landscaping Jack had seen. He couldn't hear anything besides the birds and cicadas singing, and the wind rustling the trees situated around the house. Then he heard the all too familiar sound of click, thump, click, thump, of someone on crutches and either a boot or cast, coming around the porch. He hit the work button on correct address on his laptop and got his speech ready about how he was just checking addresses, it would only take a few seconds, and 'no you didn't need to give me your name'. A blonde head poked around the corner and asked, "Would you mind coming around here? I'm in the middle of something."

The head disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and he heard the click thump again. With a shrug, Jack followed him around to the back of the house where the deck widened out to a nice outside entertainment area overlooking an in-ground pool in the back yard.

The blonde had already settled into a seat beside a picnic table that was littered with different parts of something. After propping his booted foot on a nearby chair and laying the crutches beside him, the blonde indicated for Jack to sit in the other. Not wanting to look stupid Jack sank into the partner of the chair that the blonde was sitting in, it was surprisingly comfortable. Jack studied the blonde. He had to be in his early twenties with a wiry frame that spoke of a love of running. His grey MIT shirt had sweat stains on it indicating he had been outside for a while, deciding to get this over with Jack started off. "My name is Jack Dalton and I am working with the Census Bureau."

The blonde frowned, "I thought the decennial census wasn't until next year?"

Jack was impressed he hadn't heard of that "D" word until their stupid training. "Right now, we are goin' around making sure that all the addresses that we have are correct."

The blonde nodded, "That makes sense, you wouldn't want a residential address listed as a business or vise verses or for a house to be overlooked, then someone would have to hunt that person down." He nodded sagely and took a drink of the blue Gatorade he had sitting beside him.

"Yea, exactly. Anyway, this will only take a few seconds." Jack looked up as he touched the appropriate answers to the laptop's questions. "Your house looks nice. Is this a single -family home?"

"Thanks, but it's not mine, I'm house-sitting for a friend. He and his family are visiting his wife's family in Puerto Rico." Blondie nodded and grabbed two items off the table and started to do something with them.

"That's a nice friend." Jack was impressed. He wished some of his friends had a place like this, and asked him to house-sit. But he had his family, and the family ranch so he guessed it evened out in the end.

Blondie shrugged, "We served together in basic. He made sure I made it through." Jack noticed a half grin at the last statement, event thought the kid hadn't looked from whatever he was fiddling with.

Jack understood better now, and while before he saw some kid house sitting for a friend before, he now saw a young soldier who hadn't been state-side for very long. His friend was a good friend indeed. His census job forgotten Jack looked the kid over and saw the soldier inside. "I understand that. I've got a few friends like that and if it wasn't for my old Delta unit." Jack paused and shook his head. "I don't like to think of where I would be without them."

"I'm MacGyver, Mac for short. I was EOD until last month." He indicated his leg, "Now I'm here." Mac still hadn't looked up from whatever he was working on content just to try to do whatever it was that he was doing. With a sigh he looked up and asked. "You want a Gatorade? I've got red and orange left."

"Red."

Mac set the items down, placed his leg on the ground and pushed himself backward with his good foot. Jack belatedly noticed that there were wheels attached to the chair, unlike his. Mac must have noticed him looking at the chair legs. "I was having a hard time getting around, so I added wheels." He shrugged and tossed the drink to Jack who caught it, twisted the top off, and took several large gulps.

Relishing the cold drink Jack took a second wiping his mouth with the back of his had. "Thanks, kid. My last tour, I served as EOD overwatch." Jack paused taking another deliciously cold drink. "Made sure every one of you bomb nerds made it home." Jack quickly finished off the drink not realizing just how thirsty he had been. When Mac didn't say anything, Jack looked at the kid. He was sitting there staring off into space rubbing his leg. Jack recognized that look. He had seen it too many times in the mirror, and on other veterans' faces.

Softening his voice, he asked, "you with me Mac?" When he didn't answer Jack tried again. "Talk to me MacGyver." That seemed to get through to him.

Mac blinked a few times while he still unconsciously rubbed his injured leg. "I was paired with my training officer. He stepped on a pressure plate. I made it out, he didn't." Mac sighed and picked his doohickey back up, absentmindedly fiddling with it.

Jack glanced at his watch, it was getting late and he had a few more houses to hit up. '_Shit_," he thought. He was beginning o feel a real connection to this kid. With a sigh he reached into his bag he pulled out a pad of paper quickly jotted down his info, and some other pertinent information. He stood up and handed it to Mac. "I've written down my cell number if you ever need someone to talk to. I've been where you are and know how it feels; on the bottom is a veteran's support group that meets every other Tuesday night. We would be glad to have you join us."

Mac took the paper studying it carefully. "Thanks, Dalton, I appreciate it."

Jack pointed at the paper, "Call me anytime." Jack held onto the paper waiting for Mac agree. After Mac nodded Jack let go knowing he would be hearing from the kid later With that done he grabbed his census laptop and started back around the house before he realized that he hadn't finished listing the address. Stopping he quickly finished and glanced back at Mac, who was still fiddling with the same doohickey as before but he seemed different. Jack hoped that he would hear from the kid, or that he would at least show up for one of the meetings. With a sigh, he climbed back up in the truck and continued with the next house.

_A/N 2 As a bit of shameless self promotion hopefully my next story will be the beginning of an AU that's been puttering around my head for a while now. It still starts out with Mac and Jack in the Army together, so I hope you'll keep on eye out for it_!


End file.
